Scavone
Hello, fellow dmb lovers! I just got home from tonight’s show and it was magical. God bless dmb. For those who haven’t been to Irvine, it is a beautiful ampitheater with excellent stage views, wide rows, comfy seats, wonderful acoustics, lovely outdoor feel with a cool ocean breeze on cool night air, and mostly classy wine and cheese crowd from the O.C. It reminds me of Shoreline up in Northern Cal which is a huge compliment to Irvine, you should try it at least once.

The energy the crowd gave to the band was overwhelming. Everyone was cheering the band right when the lights went down and didn’t stop for several minutes- all the band could do was wait an extra long time for it to die down, this was well beyond the normal greeting the crowd gives. I think Irvine LOVES dmb and dmb showed a lot of love for Irvine. The energy of the room was classy, a little lovey-dovey, a little laid back and beachy, and I think the setlist fit perfectly for the venue and the temper.

* Loved the opener, Pampa>Rapunzel, what a great start to the evening, and a refreshing change from either OSW or DDTW. * Dreamgirl sounds lush and gorgeous, and is a good newer song to hear, but thought their intro with the pre-recorded effects and the vocal yeah, yeah, yeah intro would work better if it were truncated and focused. * Proudest Monkey> Satellite were also beautiful and played with focus and resolve in what I perceived the band’s appreciation for the rousing welcome they were given. People, the band was sounding just outstanding and passionate. I was loving this show big time and wanted it to keep going well, which it did. * Into a new one, Shotgun. Some real good sounding stuff here, but lyrics are still being coagulated, and surprised to hear the lyric ‘Shotgun/ in your mouth/ … looking for me/someone to blame” pretty grim stuff there dave! But the music sugarcoats it in a tantalizing way and a real interesting hissed lyric SHOTgun like Dave is spitting the lyric out. Let’s hope it develops another gear or two before the album. * 12 string comes out and I’m praying to keep this awesome night going with a JTR- he didn’t play it in New York and I thought for sure out here we’d get it, but no, just a standard phenomenal as always Grey Street. * SMTS>TM typical power-pack right in the gut of the set as they seem to like to do it almost always this tour. * Break Free- great new one, love the outro and the shifting time signature stuff with a cool riff, looking forward to this one developing also. * Standard Crash into me- again with the lovey dovey Irvine set. * Lie in our Graves – huge highlight, thank you! It was good to hear it with JUST the band and no guests getting in the way (no offense, Flecktones) Boyd and Carter both had standout jams that as always, were inspired and fresh live. * Cant stop- I don’t get why this song exists * into Hunger for the GL- again, these 2 songs are the only parts where I scratch my head and lose some contact mentally with the show, but otherwise completely ecstatic and having a wonderful time. * improv intro was really great with RR- we’ve heard the Kanye West “Golddigger” riff before with RR, but this time Dave seemed to spontaneously turn INTO Kanye and was scatting the “I aint saying shes a gold digger, but she aint messin with no broke, broke (radio edit –boo!) – RR had some hot, hot licks, and the golddigger was just icing the cake. The beat carter put on this improv should be downloaded by everyone, or at least every drummer for inspiration, no kidding. Just awesome, carter all night, all night. Bayou was standard. * Sister- decent tune and riff, very beautiful as the one new song with finished lyrics and those lyrics are so heartfelt by dave it really comes across, like man, he loved his sister like she is a saint- I wish I could have known her too. Lovely lyrics about his sister, asking her to “keep” him, which I like as a turn of phrase, and how her tears he feels down his cheeks. Powerful stuff there, I hope the new album overall develops lyrically like this song has and not like ‘Cant Stop’ where those two words are 80% of the lyric sheet. Just not my cup of tea. * Everyday – beautiful and nice outro- we then walked out to get out the parking lot to the strains of what sounded like a standard Ants Marching closer. Raushaun Ross is so physically large he makes Leroi look like Allen Iverson. The show was a solid 8.5 out of 10 and a top 5 show for me out of about 20. Thank you dmb!

Jared A.
DMB rarely disapoints me in concert. Even after seeing the band 15 times. It was nice for DMB to come back to Verizon Wireless and the setlist was awesome. The highlights for me was hearing a very sweeet version of Proudest Monkey and an awesome So Much To Say that segued nicely into Too much. The new songs like Shotgun, Break Free and Sister were really good. As for the guest musicians...Rashawn Ross is awesome to hear and it makes a nice addition to the band. I'm not too impressed with Robert Randolp but he does add a different sound to the band. Anyways, it was a great night and an awesome show. See you all tommarrow in Chula Vista!

Jared A.
I think tonight proved my theory that Coors Ampitheater is one of DMB's favorite venues. I've seen the band play at this venue a few times and they always bring the house down at Coors. I've seen the band play 16 times and this probably THE BEST show I've ever seen.

Please forgive me, but I'm gonna give a long review because this show was the best I've ever seen and probably the best show of the tour so far.

Don't Drink The Water, Crash, and Hunger For the Great light were all nicely played. Then the band surprised us with an awesome Seek Up that got Boyd on fire during the jam sessions in that song. In fact, Seek Up was phenomenal.

After Seek Up, the band played If I Had It All and then surprised everyone with Raven! Uhh...didn't see that one coming! It was great to hear that song and it was a nice surprise. But this wasn't the only surprise of the evening since The band played Louisiana Bayou and then whipped out Loving Wings! I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming or that I was not dead and in heaven or something.

I enjoyed hearing Where Are You Going and The Idea of You. Seeing the SMTS-ASTB-TM was no surprise since the band did it at the show in Irvine. However, it was alot better and had alot more energy than Irvine. I enjoyed hearing Can't stop as well. Moreover, Dave and the crowd sang a few lines from Buffalo Springfield's, "What Its Worth".

The band surprised us again with Two Step because Robert Randolp did the opening solo for the song and nobody could see it coming. Robert Randolp really did appraoch the song from a different direction and once the audience caught on to what the song was...all hell broke loose. Everybody went nuts and the band really brough the house down.

The usually never disapoints the audience with thier encores. They exceded all expectations by opening with Butterfly, which was another surprise Dave pulled on the audience. Dave played a nice tease of Little Thing. Then the band brough the house down with What Would You Say and Tripping Billies.

The band was just awesome tonight. It was nice to have Rawshawn Ross on the trumpet and Alfredo Ballesteros on the Saxophone. I'm not a big fan of Robert Randolp and his music but he did a wonderful job tonight.

Anyways, great show and probably the best show of the tour!!

Robin A.
Took a couple of DMB live virgins to the show. Unfortunately we had to settle for the lawn. The show was less than stellar, actually less than even exciting. We love DMB but 7 straight slower songs to open hurt. My friends were bored after "Crash." Pretty sad they took a potty break just as "So Much to Say" and "Too Much" came on--the lack of energy sent them to the loo!. Unfortunately I can't say I will get them back again.

Saturday at Chula Vista was "lights out"--The best I've seen DMB in 3+ years including the Gorge last year (all 3 shows were great). We have 4 again for Monday at the bowl. I have no doubt the show will rock...